Profile
Laurie
Garo is the founder and Executive Director of Mind, Body & Soul,
Inc. She has a heart for service to the intervention and prevention of
juvenile delinquency, with special compassion for those youth who find
themselves most marginalized and disenfranchised from school, community,
peers and society at large, and those who are system-involved.
Laurie is also a lecturer and researcher at UNC-Charlotte, where she specializes in Crime Analysis and Mapping using GIS. She serves as a research analyst for the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods, and uses police, sheriff, corrections, school, social, health, and juvenile justice data, plus interviews, and site visits with community residents and non-profit organizations to study root causes of juvenile delinquency and to recommend, write grants for, establish, and evaluate intervention and prevention strategies from culture, gender and faith-relevant perspectives. She established two youth empowerment programs to serve as dropout and delinquency prevention.
She has an MA in Cartography (Geography) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a total of 18 years experience in university teaching, training and project management. Nine of those years were overseas in Kenya and in Papua New Guinea where she developed a keen sense for the integral roles that culture and faith play in children’s healthy development and in the sustenance of community as a whole.
Some of her relevant achievements include:
- Director, Youth Leadership Academy (YLA) – an imaginative, multi-dimensional youth empowerment program that instills life and critical thinking skills in youth who face may risk conditions. YLA was established in July, 2006 at Philip O. Berry Academy of Technology with funding by the North Carolina Governors Crime Commission.
- Co-Facilitator, Boyz to Men Life Skills program at Crossroads Charter High School.
- Board Member, Mecklenburg County Juvenile Crime Prevention Council Advisory Board. Appointed for two years as a Citizen Appointee on September 17, 2003. Reappointed for another two year term on June 30, 2007.
- Co-Founder, the Belmont Diamonds Youth Council, an inner-city youth group successful in reducing violent behaviors and improving school attendance and performance among youth ages 5-16. Funding provided by Mecklenburg County and Goody's FAST.
- GPS Demonstration and Outdoor Exercises for three classes (grouped
by age range) at the Thompson’s Home for Children. Summer 2002.
- Research Partner and Anti-Gang Outreach for the Department of Justice Project Safe Neighborhoods for the Western District of North Carolina. Project involves crime analysis and mapping to identify and monitor target gun crime hotspots, investigate causal factors, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of mitigation strategies. Special research focus on juvenile delinquency intervention and prevention. 2002 to present.
Presentations and certifications at relevant workshops and conferences/trainings:
- Youth Violence: What can we do about it?: Attended workshops held in Charlotte, sponsored by Gang of One in the spring of 2006 and 2007. These workshops provided very useful sessions for planning and implementing programming on youth gang prevention.
- Connecting with African American Girls: Attended this workshop facilitated by Joanne Jenkins Stevenson at the Substance Abuse Prevention Services facility in Charlotte, NC, February 24, 2006. Earned three credit hours and a Certificate of Attendance.
- Project Safe Neighborhoods Training Conference: Attended this U.S. Attorney’s office program on Project Safe Neighborhoods held in Winston-Salem, NC, November 29-30, 2005. Earned a Certificate of Completion for this course relevant to the Project Safe Neighborhoods research grant. Also presented an animated photographic essay (entitled Stand up for Love, played to the Destiny’s Child song of the same name) on demonstrating the value of community outreach for reducing gun violence and encouraging and empowering healthy communities.
- Programs Administration Track: Attended this Bureau of Justice Assistance program on Grants Administration and Management held in Charlotte, NC, November 1-2, 2005. Earned a Certificate of Attendance for this course which has relevance to my research on education, and gun violence and delinquency prevention.
- Beyond The Colors: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) 2005 National Youth Gang Symposium: Completed 21 hours of gang prevention training at this symposium held in Orlando, Florida, June 7-10, 2005. The symposium has relevance to my research on education and gun violence and juvenile delinquency prevention.
- Garo, Laurie, 2005: Where Have All the Children Gone?, Poster presentation to explore the potential cause-effect relationships between the disproportionate suspension rates for African American Males in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School system and their disproportionate incarceration rates. The poster also explores the longer term detrimental effects of under-education, leading to under and unemployment, crime and poverty, and recommends intervention strategies which include faith based approaches to healing, culture and gender relevant pedagogies in school, diversity training for teachers, and parent advocacy. Poster was presented at the 2005 Annual Association of American Geographers meeting in Denver, CO on April 8, 2005. The Poster is also on display at the Raleigh, NC office of the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
- Reaching Defiant Youth, Charlotte, NC. January 21, 2005. Training provided by Kwain Bryant of Empowerment Exchange, held at Substance Abuse Prevention Services. The training focused on analysis of defiant behaviors and methodologies to engage defiant youth in positive ways.
- Project Implementation Training, Charlotte, NC, March 11 and 12, 2004. This training, sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, covered effective project design, implementation and management strategies as well as how to find and obtain grant dollars and other income to maintain projects over the long term.
- Project Safe Neighborhoods Coordinators and Research Analysts Training, San Diego, CA, February 26-27, 2004. This training, sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, provided opportunities for coordinators and research analysts from around the nation to compare and discuss strategies, successes and problems, and to learn more effective ways of project coordination and research reporting.
- Project Safe Neighborhoods Strategic Problem Solving Training, Destin, FL, February 26-27, 2003. Training sessions and working group meetings to further refine project strategies with the project team and training facilitators.
- Project Safe Neighborhoods National Conference, Philadelphia, PA, January 30-February 1, 2003. Although this was a conference, there were several training sessions and opportunities to discuss project strategies with our project team.
- “Fostering Analytical Thinking and Graphic Communication Skills in the Classroom using GIS to Analyze and Map Crime in Charlotte Neighborhoods”, UNC-Charlotte Center for Faculty Teaching and Learning, September 12, 2001. I presented this paper at the “Teaching Week Focus on Faculty Innovators.
Extracurricular activities:
- Praise & Worship Dancer, Praise Ensemble of University Park Baptist Church, 2000 to present
- African Dancer, Kabaka Dancers
and Drummers, Our Lady of Consolation Catholic Church in Charlotte, NC,
1997 to 2000